I got a chance to play the game for a few hours last night and here are my first impressions:

Speaking purely from an entertainment perspective, I think Far Cry 3's intro is fantastically well done. For the first 20 minutes the game dumped a large and exciting amount of exposition on me, and it's very memorable. Not Half-life-intro-amazing but it's definitely one of the best. It really got me excited to play.

The amount of side stuff in this game is mind boggling. That in itself isn't awesome, what IS awesome if all of it seems to have some type of reward. Something you do will decrease prices or permanently remove bad guys from locations or net you some XP or money. Will it be too much and overwhelm people? Perhaps, but one could always just ignore it right? The real question: Can you beat the game without completing any of the side-missions and their rewards?

Coup to nuts is fun, and that's something I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a drag hunting down animals, but you know what? I found chasing some of these little suckers around a nice break from the other action. Heck even trying to sneak up on them and taking them out silently was nice practice for the real thing. Every animals skin has some sort of benefit...eventually.

Tagging is useful--much like it was in FC2--however you can now use anything with a lens. Plus it denotes what kind of enemy they are (rusher/sniper). So for instance I was able to tag out a whole camp, perched from a ledge above before taking everyone out with my sniper-scope.

FarCry3 is gorgeous on the X360. So far I've had the frame rate take a few dips here and there but not to unplayable levels. You can tell this game is really really pushing the hardware. So yeah, it seems to be rendered fairly consistently at a decent rate, but it always feels like it's on the verge of...studder. Like, if one more pig runs into this scene it's screwed! fortunately that's usually not the case. I'm rambling at this point aren't I? Let me just end this bullet point with this: It's still spectacular considering it's running on hardware that's 7 years old. Not to start an argument because they're both gorgeous games, however I think some people will immediately declare Hitman Absolution a better looking game. It is indeed a damn good looking game but to me Far Cry 3 is more impressive. It's truly a massively open-world game and I contend the tech stuff in Far Cry 3 is incredibly more complicated and impressive. Moot point really. Shutting up now.

The pseudo 'Autolog' (for a lack of a better term) stuff is great. For instance there's a side-game which essentially spawns you into a separate instance from the game proper, and the goal is to score as many points within a certain amount of time. Basically it's just a big forest killbox, and you're rewarded with more points for killing bad guys. The points vary considering the method (head shot, stealthy). So the game tracks your score + everyone on your buddy list & then ranks everyone. It's just silly-fun. Oh and whomever is on top gets their gamertag displayed in the game world where you access this content (it's a big boulder).

The lead antagonist--Vaas--is unsuspectingly spectacular. His voice acting is fantastic, he's comically insane & super-imposing. I mean, he just feels like a real threat and totally out of his mind.

The mocap is great because it doesn't stand out from the rest of the game world. It's not overly animated/annoyingly suggestive.

There are a lot of weapons, skill points and....omg there's just a lot of stuff.

Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the game and I'll try to answer them if I can.

I paid almost no attention to this game until a few days ago. I loved the original Far Cry, Far Cry 2 had me writing off the series altogether.

The impression I get is that this game is more akin to Skyrim with guns then it is to Far Cry 2. Would you say that is an accurate assessment?

If it is, I have to pick this one up for myself(going to be on the PC for me).

Further, how much of an RPG is this, or is it one at all? I can't damn well remember the name but a couple years back a game came out that took place in south america or somewhere and it was a third person, ultra big open world, you could sky dive, get a jet, steal vehicles, etc. so do missions but also whatever else you wanted. I liked it. Is that what FC is like?

this game is the tits. very addictive, and incredibly well done. Props to the devs for paying attention to their users and compiling a game that reflects what people want.

__________________Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
You're being difficult. You have not provided us with the information we need to troubleshoot the problem. You have not given us errors, you're vague about where the problem is, you are not answering the questions we ask. In short, you DON'T KNOW HOW TO THINK. Give back that piece of paper you think makes your intelligent, apologize, destroy your computer and go live in the woods kid.

Further, how much of an RPG is this, or is it one at all? I can't damn well remember the name but a couple years back a game came out that took place in south america or somewhere and it was a third person, ultra big open world, you could sky dive, get a jet, steal vehicles, etc. so do missions but also whatever else you wanted. I liked it. Is that what FC is like?

It has similarities to Just Cause 2, but FC3 is more grounded and realistic.

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Nothing like doing a little meth and defending the honor of lions on the internet. NOTHING.

Graphics aside, I honestly think this could be the game of the year. I'm on the Xbox version, and I can't turn it off! Never played FC1 and couldn't get through FC2, but they crushed this game. So much stuff to do, and even if some people might think it could get monotonous, the quality of the gameplay keeps it going. I'm having more fun with this than GTA4 and quite possibly even Fallout 3 which I LOVED.

Let's get this out of the way: Holy crap the xbox 360 is OLD. Graphics on this are seriously weak on the 360. I've seen it do much better in other recent games and I suppose it must be the result of the incredible draw distances, though I don't quite recall Skyrim as challenged.

Anyhow, about two hours in and the terrible graphics are taking back seat to the ambiance, the environment. I think the fact I played until I had a gaming headache speaks to the game in positive ways

I love this game. I have never been so worried about ambient noises. I throw on my gaming headset anytime I play it just so I can make sure I hear the tiger that is about to rip my face off. Graphically, I think it is pretty good, a lot better than other games that people loved (Dishonored is one), but it is just so much fun. I started running through some of the story missions, then got side tracked doing all the hunting I need to upgrade all my stuff and taking over the northern outposts. This is easily my game of the year, and I am not even half way done with the story.

On a good PC this game is pure eye candy. Playing at 1080P @ 60fps with very high. I use the 360 controller and sick back in my recliner. This is the tye of game that makes you buy a good GPU. Glad I got a free GTX670 from work

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Nate Silver 1, buckshot24 0
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ---Sinclair Lewis

On a good PC this game is pure eye candy. Playing at 1080P @ 60fps with very high. I use the 360 controller and sick back in my recliner. This is the tye of game that makes you buy a good GPU. Glad I got a free GTX670 from work

Anyone else have this issue: When game starts I can register U play or click "never ask me again". I've clicked never ask me again a half dozen times, which should be impossible, because it shouldn't keep asking!

There's several spots on the island that has infinitely respawning enemies, where you can go back and kill to get achievements if you need. I was worried about that too, after I got all the outposts and beat the game I didn't think I could get my flamethrower achievement and stuff. But you still can.
Go for the outposts now, get the achievement in case you lose interest once you beat the game.

There's a good amount. Like the big underground harbour thing there are 6-10 just at the entrance(I didn't go underground) and they just keep respawning if you walk away.
Hoyt's base(the final one) is full of em too. Not so much out on the roads, but the main bases and stuff still has guys.

Ok sounds like a plan then. I doubt I will get bored, but I still have Skyrim, Prototype 2, and Darksiders 2 to finish before the next set of good games comes out in March. Then I will be adding Tombraider, Gears, and GTA to my stack of games. It looks like I won't have to worry about trying to find games to play in the summer.